Presidential Highlights:
· Approved the largest federal tax cut since the Reagan
Administration.
· On September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda (a terrorist network) hijacked four commercial
airplanes, crashing two of them into the World Trade Center in New York, and one into the
Pentagon - killing over 3000 Americans. A few weeks later, President Bush ordered the
invasion of Afghanistan (the primary home and training center of Al Quida) and the
removal of their Taliban Government. Within two months, the United States had emerged
victorious.
· Oversaw the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which condensed 20+
overlapping agencies and their intelligence sectors into one agency. This was the most
extensive reorganization of the Federal bureaucracy since the Truman Administration.
· Approved the addition of a prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program, the largest new entitlement in almost 40 years.
· The Iraq War. The United States believed that Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussien was
developing weapons of mass destruction in violation of UN Resolutions and the The Gulf
War cease-fire agreement. On March 20, 2003 US forces invaded Iraq, and in less than a month the country
was no longer under Hussien's control.
· Approved the unification of 15 separate intelligence agencies under a single command structure. This was
the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence gathering in over 50 years.
· Hurricane Katrina. In August 2005, a devastating hurricane hit Louisiana causing massive destruction throughout much of the Gulf Coast. The federal government was criticized for slow response during the disaster relief effort.
George W. Bush